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Best Practice: Creating a Digital Strategy

Devising growth strategies will always be an important aspect of your business and remains at the forefront of every entrepreneur’s mind. We’ve all heard of (or are familiar with) management and marketing strategies, but one can no longer ignore the importance of digital strategies in today’s highly and multi-connected world. So, what are the elements that need to be considered when creating a digital strategy that marries well with your organisation’s current vision:

Revisit the business plan; are there any aspects that digital assets can be used as solutions to existing business opportunities or challenges?

A digital strategy is a close relative of an IT strategy and encompasses more than just your business’ hardware and software needs. A digital strategy is about the solutions that you create by bringing together information and technology to address a need, a problem or build opportunities. For example; embarking on an online media journey to foster public relations with both existing and future clients, or, implementing portals into your organisation’s infrastructure for information sharing to increase productivity in contractor management.

Who are the stakeholders of these opportunities and challenges; can their needs be met through technology?

When setting your digital solutions, consider the stakeholders that will be involved in the process. This may require you to conduct interviews or surveys to identify ‘hidden’ groups, for example, the contractor management portal may require input from several roles; office administration to submit invoices and insurance certificates of currency, consultant to submit progress reports, and finally, sales to submit quotations and proposals. By mapping this out, you will be able to view the bigger picture of your solution and assist in prioritisation of which needs are to be implemented first.

Develop a vision surrounding the digital solution, detailing its life cycle and priorities.

With the rapid technology changes and capabilities that are available today, one can easily get lost amidst the never-ending requirements from various parts of the organisation. Prioritisation is key in developing the stages of digital strategy implementation and provide the benchmarks needed when its time to activate the action plan! As always, recording the plan down onto paper provides the best method of keeping track and being able to revisit digital objectives and goals.

Create a set of action plans that are required to bring the digital solution to life!

Once the digital strategy is set, break down the solution or work with a digital partner (refer to our success story with Moore Stephens on their digital journey) to assist with the planning and implementation of your vision.

Much like all other strategies, it should be revisited from time to time in order for your business to adapt with the market and to reap the innovation in emerging technologies. Keep track of how often your digital strategy is reviewed as part of your business governance and continue your commitment to innovation.

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